Formats

Ways to practice

The games give you reps in isolation. These formats put the reps back into real or near-real conversation, with a specific constraint each time. Pick one per week rather than rotating daily.

Solo

10 min · daily

The daily set

One set each of Rapid Repair, The Naive Ear, and Recap in One. Standing, out loud, no restarts. If a rep goes badly, the next prompt is already coming — that's the point.

15 min · weekly

Shadow hosting

Play a podcast or interview episode. Pause it after each guest answer and speak the follow-up you would ask before hearing the host's. Note when yours followed a different channel — different isn't wrong, but you should be able to name the phrase that justified yours.

20 min · after any hosted event

The recording review

If you recorded a conversation you hosted, review it with three questions: Which exact phrase justified each of your follow-ups? Where did a trigger for a palette move pass unused? Where did you talk when silence would have worked? Log the answers in the rep log.

5 min · before any conversation

Spine sketch

Open the planner and fill in only two boxes: Entry (the live edge you'll open on) and Return (the thing you'll bring back at the end). Leave the middle to the conversation.

With a partner

2 people · 30 min

Twelve-minute interviews

One hosts, one guests on a topic the guest genuinely knows. Run the Table Timer: the host stays under 25% of talk time. Swap roles. Debrief with likes first — each names one question the other asked that opened something.

2 people · 20 min

Dealt-hand interview

Same as above, but the host is dealt two moves from Palette Draw and must use each at least once. The guest tries to guess afterwards which moves were dealt.

2 people · 15 min

The guarded guest

The guest picks a guarded move in secret (slogan, deflection, over-technical…) and commits to it. The host works the non-adversarial forms until the script runs out. Then reveal and swap.

2 people · 10 min

Recap tennis

The guest talks for two minutes on something complicated. The host recaps in one sentence; the guest scores it: core, partial, or miss. Three rounds each. Shorter recaps score higher on ties.

At a real table

Dinner · any size

Host with a hand

Before guests arrive, deal yourself two palette moves. Your job for the evening includes finding one natural opening for each. Nobody else needs to know the game is running.

Group · 4–8 people

The balance table

Put the Table Timer on a visible screen during a discussion where airtime tends to skew. Tap speakers as they take the floor. The bars do the moderation for you — most people self-correct when they can see their share.

Group · book club, panel, salon

Rotating conductor

Split the session into 15-minute segments and rotate the host role. Each conductor is dealt one move to feature. Afterwards, the group tries to reconstruct who had what.

Meeting · recurring

One-move meetings

For a recurring meeting you run, adopt a single move for a month. A month of deliberate Recapping changes how a standing meeting works; so does a month of Extracting an Example.

Progressions

When a game stops feeling like practice, make it harder in one of these ways rather than abandoning it:

Shrink the clock. Every drill's timer is adjustable. Rapid Repair at 6 seconds is a different sport than at 12.
Remove the reveal. Do a set without checking the model answers; check only the last round.
Chain moves. In Move Roulette, perform the dealt move, then immediately a second move of your choice on your own imagined follow-up answer.
Raise the stakes gradually. Solo drill → partner format → real table with people you know → real table with people you don't. The drill you avoid is usually the one to schedule.